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Journalists Detained at Texas Protest of Keystone XL Pipeline

October 17, 2012

Two New York Times journalists were briefly detained by local and private police while covering a protest against the controversial Keystone XL pipeline in Texas. The two, reporter Dan Frosch and photographer Brandon Thibodeaux, were working on private land with the permission of the landowner, near Winnsboro in northeast Texas. They were detained by "a private security official and a law enforcement official," according to the online energy publication FuelFix. After they identified themselves as working journalists, they were released.

New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told FuelFix, “They were released and told that they were risking arrest for trespassing if they stayed where they were, so they left the location."

The 78-year-old owner of the land, Eleanor Fairchild, who objects to the routing of the pipeline across it, has also been arrested for trespassing on her own land.